Rome/New Delhi: Describing India as a “true partner”, Italy’s former Foreign Minister and current Senator Mr Giulio Terzi said the relationship with India remained one of the key pillars for Rome, both in the global and regional environment spanning Europe, the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the Indo-Pacific.

In an exclusive interview with IANS, Senator Terzi said these regions were connected by a shared understanding of security, progress and the wellbeing of both nations and their peoples. “The state of our relations is not only excellent, it is extraordinarily good. Our relationship has been developing very, very well over the last four years,” Senator Terzi said.

“There are many strategic partnerships, but I would say that the partnership between India and Italy is a very unique one. It brings together Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni through the Plan of Action that was drafted two years ago and subsequently reinforced.”

The strategic partnership between India and Italy was further strengthened during Prime Minister Meloni’s first visit to New Delhi, when she participated as a special guest at the Raisina Dialogue.

In May, at the invitation of Prime Minister Meloni, Prime Minister Modi paid an official visit to Italy, during which the two leaders agreed to elevate India-Italy relations to the level of a Special Strategic Partnership.

The two Prime Ministers also welcomed the “strong momentum” in high-level exchanges and agreed to hold annual meetings of leaders, including on the sidelines of multilateral events, alongside regular ministerial and institutional-level meetings.

“Prime Minister Modi’s visit represented a further step forward. I would describe the relationship as developing to a crescendo, moving ahead at an increasingly accelerated pace,” Senator Terzi said.

He added that the relationship had become not only more intense but also richer in terms of projects and programmes of cooperation. Prime Minister Modi’s latest visit and his meeting with Prime Minister Meloni, he said, had reiterated and further enriched the contents of the India-Italy Joint Strategic Action Plan 2025–2029.

Over the previous year and a half, significant progress had also been made in political dialogue, with around 30 meetings at ministerial level, Senator Terzi said.

He cited Defence Minister Guido Crosetto’s visit to New Delhi last April as particularly important, noting that the two sides had discussed cooperation between their armed forces, defence-industry cooperation and defence technologies. According to Senator Terzi, a number of agreements had been reached in principle, while several programmes were already moving towards implementation.